Portable electronic devices such as laptop computers, portable digital assistants (PDAs), etc. are commonly used in business to increase worker productivity, increase communications capabilities and generally increase overall worker efficiency. These same types of devices are also used by countless millions of people for personal use such as to download information from the Internet.
Portable devices are known to be manufactured with different power requirements, even though they may be the same type of device. For example, laptop computers of different models may have different power requirements, depending on the manufacturer's specifications. Even with laptops that have the same power requirements, it is not uncommon for different tips (adapters) to be required for devices manufactured by the same or different manufacturers. This all leads to confusion by the consumer/user and, in many instances, leads the consumer to use the internal power source, e.g., battery, of the device.
Thus, it is not uncommon to use the internal power source, e.g., battery, of the device, whether it is for business or personal use. However, batteries have to be recharged and, in many instances, do not have the required energy to power the device for long periods of times. The powering down of the device unexpectedly, in turn, can lead to loss of information.
Currently, there exists no device that is capable of powering multiple devices of different vendors/models simultaneously, via an external power supply. For example, to connect to the power source, the user must bring a power tip which is designed not only for their portable device, but is also adapted for the particular power source.
However, to meet the needs of the consumer, there exist several universal power supplies on the market. For example, IGO.TM. Juice.TM. products, manufactured by Mobility Electronics Inc., are a suite of products that include both AC and DC tip capability. The IGO.TM. Juice.TM. suite of products includes multiple removable tips which support a variety of portable electronic devices. To use the IGO.TM. Juice.TM. tips, though, users must manually look-up the device in a table and determine the proper tip to use with the device. This, of course, relies on human intervention to determine the power requirements and therefore is prone to mistakes and possible damage to the device. For example, laptop computers may have the same tip (physical) configuration, but a different power requirement (electrical properties). So, a user may find and use a tip that fits that particular laptop computer; however, the polarity of the tip may not be correct. In such a case, upon powering up the laptop computer, the laptop computer may become damaged.
Additionally, using such conventional tips requires the user to transport the power cord and many different tips in order to ensure compatibility with the power source. This is cumbersome and, it is well known that these tips are prone to being lost. Moreover, future specifications are not possible without creating new tips to match those specifications and therefore these types of devices are severely limited in their abilities to supply power to new devices. Furthermore, an unnecessarily large amount of tips are required to power devices that use the same physical dimensional characteristics but different electrical properties.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.